Things are escalating quicky in the Netherlands [Backstory Here].  Video has surfaced of Dutch police opening fire with real bullets on an unarmed protesting farmer who drove his tractor around a police roadblock.  [Source and Source]

Several reports from the Netherlands highlight government efforts to stop Dutch farmers from protesting and blocking transit points.  As a result, Dutch farmers have been taking rural routes to their protest destinations and local law enforcement have been trying to stop them with police roadblocks.

Two videos appear to show large farming tractors, easily able to overcome traditional street curbs, driving around the one of the police roadblocks as a police officer opens fire and shoots twice at the second tractor.  An image of a bullet hole in the cab of the tractor appears to confirm live rounds are being fired at the farmers.  WATCH:

(more…)

The politicians in Dutch government recently passed sweeping new climate regulations that will result in more than a third of farmers losing their business. The government announced a €25 billion plan to radically reduce the number of livestock in the country in order to curtail emissions.

As the Guardian reports, “A deal to buy out farmers to try to reduce levels of nitrogen pollution in the country had been mooted for some time,and was finally confirmed after the agreement of a new coalition government in the Netherlands earlier this week.” The plan is to reduce farming in the Netherlands, by a “one-third reduction in the numbers of pigs, cows and chickens in the country.”  However, the farmers are fighting back.

The unorganized grass-roots groups have been randomly blocking roads and transportation hubs for the past three days.  They have also been dropping truckloads of manure at the entrances of government businesses.  In a show of solidarity, the fishing industry is now blocking ports.  Additionally, the farmers are starting to block the distribution centers of supermarkets and key roads forming a cauldron where transit is at a standstill.

As grocery store shelves go empty, the government is now asking the military to intervene and stop the farmer blockades.  However, the Dutch people overwhelmingly support the farmers.  Things have evolved into a social and economic war between the farmers and Build Back Better government ideology chasing climate change goals.

(Reuters) – Dutch farmers angered by government plans that may require them to use less fertilizer and reduce livestock began a day of protests in the Netherlands on Monday by blocking supermarket distribution hubs in several cities.

(more…)

Senator Lindsey Graham (U-DC) was apparently in Turkey around the same time as the NATO summit.  According to a Twitter announcement by Graham he has returned to the U.S. hopeful to close the deal on selling F-16”s to Turkey now that Turkish President Recep Erdogan has removed opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

“I will do all in my power to support the Biden Administration’s decision to sell F-16s to the Turkish Air Force,” Graham writes.

Also adding, “These fighter jets, in the hands of our NATO allies, will create a sense of stability and provide capability to the Turkish military that is most definitely in America’s national security interests.” {link}

On Tuesday of last week Turkey removed their block of Sweden and Finland from joining NATO, and on Wednesday Joe Biden agreed to sell Turkey 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes:

Newsmax – The Biden administration threw its support on Wednesday behind the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden.

(more…)

Separatists in Luhansk had been embroiled in a bloody civil war against the Ukraine military since 2014.  On Sunday Russia announced its military forces and allies had taken control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region after capturing the final Ukrainian holdout of Lysychansk.   Based on ground reports showing celebrations of Russian troops and the citizens of Lysychansk, the end of that regional conflict appears confirmed.

According to Politico, “Ukrainian troops have retreated from Lysychansk, the last major Kyiv-controlled city in the eastern Luhansk region, the country’s military command said Sunday. “In order to preserve the lives of the defenders of Ukraine, a decision was made to withdraw,” according to a statement from the General Staff of the Armed Forces.” {link}

Previously Moscow media were reporting that Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin Luhansk had been “liberated”, after earlier statements saying the military had captured villages around Lysychansk and encircled the city.

Politico – […] Ukraine’s military command said that given the great “superiority” of Russia’s troops in terms of weapons, ammunition and personnel, attempts to prolong the defense of the city — which had a pre-war population of around 100,000 — “would lead to fatal consequences.

The eastern region of Ukraine is a major target for Russia: Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that make up the key industrial area of Donbas, and Russia’s recognition of the self-styled people’s republics there preceded its full-scale invasion of the country this past February.

[…]  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that “there is a risk” that the whole Luhansk region could be fully occupied by Russian troops soon. “There are such risks, and we realize them,” he said at a press conference after a meeting with Australian PM Anthony Albanese in Kyiv.

(more…)

John Kirby is the former Pentagon spokesperson who is now the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications.  The people in/around the White House have shifted Kirby, a very good spinner of parseltongue, into a place where he can give the media an impression of White House competency.

The LGBTQ, racially inclusive and woke checkbox hires are not up to the task of their positions.  Incompetence is running amok.  As a result, it is somewhat ironic and representative the Biden hypocrisy, that Kirby is needed to take the pressure away from administration checkbox hires.  In this interview Kirby defends the White House policy on the Russia-Ukraine war, interventionist and dependent foreign policy, and the energy policy that has resulted in high gas prices.

Video prompted to 04:05, where the topic of Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia is discussed.  WATCH:

(more…)

This administration is a lesson in abject silliness.  Everyone knows that Joe Biden has no clue who or what is being done in the energy policy of his administration; heck, he could not even name his Interior Secretary.   That said, whoever controls his Twitter account is now just making him look even more stupid as Biden blames the gas stations.

[Tweet Source]

I would draw attention to the most overlooked quote from Joe Biden as it pertains to gas prices.  This statement was made May 23, 2022, and it proves he knows the gas price is directly related to his choice to implement the Green New Deal by executive policy:

…”Here’s the situation.  And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.”…  [source]

(more…)

This week Neil Oliver talks about the new Utopia we are being instructed to accept.  A world in which there are no rights, only permissions.

Everything including the modification of diets and the eating of bugs and fake meat; to the type of carbon footprint home we are permitted, to the energy we may use or the acceptable car we must drive; permissions, assuming of course, our social media profile and accompanying score is in line with regulatory inspection.

Nope.  Not happening.  There are more of us than them.  We will not eat the bugs.  WATCH: 

[Transcript] – What’s being done to us, or tried on us at least, isn’t working … and it isn’t working and won’t work because what we’re being pushed to accept as the new world makes no sense. The supposed utopia we’re being promised – or, rather, having rammed down our throats – is one in which there is no universal truth, no absolute and trusted truth, but only personal truth that trumps all else.

There are to be no facts like those observed by biologists, just as a for instance, and only feelings based on personal preferences that change from day to day. It will be a world in which we might have no inalienable rights, rights we are born with – just permissions granted one by one by the state … and then only if we do as we are told and do without cars and warm homes and eat our bugs and fake meat and take our medicine on demand. It is a world in which 2+2 might equal 5 if some faceless, unelected bureaucrat says it does – and if any of us says no, 2+2 always and only equals 4, then our bank accounts won’t give us any money until we accept our arithmetical and moral error.

(more…)

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called a special session of the state legislature after the Supreme Court knocked down their firearm restrictions.  The new law, which passed both chambers of democrat-controlled government, takes effect Sept 1st and is unlikely to hold up once challenged in court.  The new law is stunningly over the top.

Keep in mind, when writing the majority decision Justice Clarence Thomas concluded there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by the New York law to carry a gun in public. Indeed, as Thomas wrote, there is “no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”

The latest effort from the New York assembly is outlined in an Associated Press report which includes:

(Via AP) […] Among other things, the state’s new rules will require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their “character and conduct.”

Applicants will have to show they have “the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself and others.”  As part of that assessment, applicants have to turn over a list of social media accounts they’ve maintained in the past three years.

[…]  The bill approved by lawmakers doesn’t specify whether applicants will be required to provide licensing officers with access to private social media accounts not visible to the general public.

(more…)

It is interesting to remember the recent comments from Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, who outlined the EU energy crisis as the heart of the current inflation rate in the eurozone.  Lagarde discussed inflation in Europe while drawing a distinction in COVID-19 spending between the EU and U.S.

Essentially, according to Legarde, the EU subsidized businesses to maintain employment; the EU covered payroll expenses during lockdowns, while the U.S. sent direct payments to the American people who were impacted by the lack of work (basically everyone).

Lagarde outlined this difference in spending approach to explain why the Eurozone inflation was less than U.S. inflation.

How long did that EU Central Bank explanation hold up? Approximately two months.

The U.S. inflation rate is currently estimated at 8.6%, and today the eurozone inflation rate just reached,…. wait for it,…  Yep, an exact match at 8.6%.

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in countries using the euro set another eye-watering record, pushed higher by a huge increase in energy costs fueled partly by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Annual inflation in the eurozone’s 19 countries hit 8.6% in June, surging past the 8.1% recorded in May, according to the latest numbers published Friday by the European Union statistics agency, Eurostat. Inflation is at its highest level since recordkeeping for the euro began in 1997.

(more…)

It’s not a secret that billionaire Bill Gates wants to radically change the process and outcome of farming, agriculture and ultimately food humans consume, in order to follow his climate change ambitions.  Bill Gates has been advocating for the removal of cows, pigs and animal-based protein for multiple years.  This is not a revelation.

However, what is new, is the amount of farmland that Bill Gates is purchasing.  Why would an entrenched climate change ideologue who wants to change food production be purchasing over a quarter million acres of prime farmland?

North Dakota – Bill Gates has secured legal approval for the controversial purchase of thousands of acres of prime North Dakota farmland, after the deal drew fury from the state’s residents.

The state’s Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley had inquired into the land sale, and on Wednesday issued a letter saying the transaction complied with an archaic anti-corporate farming law. The Depression-era law prohibits corporations or limited liability companies from owning farmland or ranchland, but allows individual trusts to own the land if it is leased to farmers, which Gates intends to do.

Gates is the largest private owner of farmland in America after quietly amassing some 270,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last year’s edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nation’s largest landowners.

(more…)